Amor Vincit Omnia
by Blackstorm808
Summary: After scouring the globe relentlessly for 2 years searching for Eric, Pam finally decides to go back to the little town of Bon Temps, and reconnect with her progeny, but is she really ready to confront the past she left behind? Or will the present's harsh reality forever estrange her from the one person that still matters to her.
1. Chapter 1: Homecoming

**Hello infidels xD**

**I watched the True Blood season finale and this story...kind of just happened. The story takes place 2 years after episode 10.**

**Half the credit for it's content belongs to my friend Kiwi7. She helped me bounce around ideas. And gave me lots of insightful input xD**

**The Title translated from Latin to English means: Love Conquers all and we'll see if that's true for Pam and Tara.**

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**Chapter 1: Homecoming**

Pam's gaze traced over the faded Bon Temps sign, drinking in the pale letters with an equal measures of distaste and nostalgia. It had been two years-an innumerable number of hours-since she had last stepped foot in this tragically small town. She'd invested all of that time in trying to divine the location of her Maker: Eric. But after two years of relentlessly scouring every country Eric could be in, after two years of being plagued by guilt for abandoning her progeny, she'd come to the accept the fact that Eric didn't want to be found, and reluctantly conceded her search. The surreal feeling that came with acceptance consumed her; filling her with a staggering amount of relief and disappointment. The part of her that was eternally devoted to Eric grieved at his loss. After walking the Earth with him for over 100 years she couldn't grasp the concept of letting go. The idea of a life bereft of Eric's company eluded her, and yet for the last 2 years that was the life she had been living. The independent part of her that reveled in self sufficiency- and enjoyed paving her own path was thrilled at her preconceived failure because it made her cognizant of one fact: Her happiness was not reliant on the presence of Eric Northman.

She would always love Eric; she would always have the highest regards for him; but she would never again allow her life to revolve solely around him, and his bullshit. That is where she had made her mistake before. She had stalwartly remained by his side-while crapstorm after crapstorm harangued them. Staunchly trusting her Maker while he lied to her, omitted every pertinent detail she needed to know for his own self serving reasons- and made everyone in his life endure hell in order to protect Sookie fucking Stackhouse.

Looking back she was amazed at how tolerant she was.

Despite how miserable catering to Eric's whims had made her, Pam was unable to defy him, and unable to summon the resolve to leave.

If it had been anyone else-she would have.

Eric was the only bastard alive that would make blind obedience a problem for her.

He was also one of the few people who was capable of leaving her with a plethora of regrets.

Some of which she doubted would ever get resolved.

Pam sighed, running slender fingers through her silky blonde tresses, and slowly began walking again while she gathered her miscellaneous thoughts. Eric was still a sore subject for her, and ruminating over her sordid past with him was hardly a mood elevator. His memory only served to entrench her in melancholia-and that was a dangerous mindset to be in right now, because she didn't come all the way to Bon Temps to reminisce over Eric. She'd agonized over him enough the past two years. Her purpose in returning to this shithole town was of a more intimate kind. Instead of some poorly convoluted scheme to indulge some pompous asshole-This time her steps were driven by a sense of obligation and by some damnable feelings of yearning and wistfulness that she couldn't control.

Another painful realization that Pam had to come to terms with over the past two years is that she missed her progeny. Words could not describe how much she ached for Tara-earnestly languishing over the immense chasm separating them, and pining for the ebony skinned woman's company. It infuriated her. This unquenchable thirst she had for Tara. She had missed the sinfully soft skin beneath her touch; she missed being the recipient of Tara's heated glances-and being the one to constantly tease the young vampire's senses; she missed every fleeting word exchanged between them that would be forever imprinted in her thoughts. Not even Eric's absence had affected her like this. Her propensity to miss someone this intensely of her own volition terrified the living shit out of her, because Pam hated being the victim of her own desires. She wasn't lusting after Tara anymore. She was cursed with other more dangerous feelings for her; disgustingly soft ones that robbed her of sleep during the day, and plagued her thoughts at night.

Those self same feelings were the ones that were consuming her now; and were the sole reason she'd returned to Bon Temps at this hour. She'd been walking at a depressingly human speed for the past several days to reach her destination-prolonging the journey as long as possible. Pam was in no hurry to be reintroduced to the object of her desires. She hadn't been gone so long that she forgot what Tara was like when she was pissed. There would be no happy reunion-or fond greetings when they met. She'd felt the anger, and the utter betrayal resonating through their bond when she left 2 years ago, and although wisps of tender emotion bled through sometimes- Tara was adamant in detaching herself from the insurmountable bond that tied her to Pam.

In a way, history was repeating itself.

Eric had done the same thing before deciding to release her.

She could only imagine what momentous decision her progeny had come to since she'd been gone.

Glancing up at the moon that was illuminating the dirt road in front of her-Pam shook her head morosely. She didn't have the luxury of knowing what Tara was thinking anymore, and she was tired of torturing herself with assumptions. Now that she was officially in Bon Temps- Procrastinating was no longer an option. She'd been dragging her feet every night for the past week, traveling at a painfully slow pace as she became increasingly aware of the situation she was walking into.

On top of not wanting to confront Tara right away-Rumors had traveled down the vampire circuit about the abysmally deficient system Louisiana had instituted; where humans and vampires got together and pretended they were equal partners-instead of the cold reality where they were two desperate species who were selfishly using each other to stay alive. Humans needed protection from the wandering destitute vampires who hadn't eaten in months, and vampires needed a compliant food source that wouldn't come back to bite them in the ass later.

So now…Louisiana was home to practicing monogamists.

A concept that was completely foreign to Pam.

The only picture that surfaced at the thought of humans entering a symbiotic relationship with vampires was a nauseating image of being forever tied to Ginger-which in and of itself was an abhorrent notion she refused to entertain.

She preferred her own risky method of glamouring and then hunting her meal.

Although, Pam hadn't eaten or slept much during the long trek to Bon Temps…

Her thought process was disrupted as a loud crack reached her superior hearing, and a lithe bodiless form too fast to be human lunged through the treeline. Pam had foregone the conventional method of discerning Tara's location. Instead of summoning her progeny, she had managed to discern Tara's individual smokey sent over the masses and had been following the trail. She was near the edge of the forest on the less fortunate side of town-very aware of a lingering aroma that was belonged solely to Tara. Her progeny was close…and so was another foul smelling vampire. Most likely the same hulking creature that had just disappeared beyond her peripherals.

Her gaze became icy, as she bent down to palm a pointed stick in her hand. Shifting quickly on the balls of her feet-Pam's body thrummed with tension as she tore through the vegetation after the vampire-every progressive step bringing her closer to Tara-and closer to the remorseless husk of a vampire that was dangerously close to Tara's chosen abode. An exasperated huff left Pam's mouth, as she exponentially increased her speed, closing the distance between herself and her quarry. A starved vampire was weak, and so it took a sparse amount of effort to catch up with the near bestial male. Advancing on him, she reached out with a hand-digging her nails into his shoulder and with a fluid jerk to the left, she wrenched the bone out of its socket-forcefully throwing him to the ground. In the same motion the hand holding the pointed stick-drove the tip into his unbeating heart.

The resounding scream that left his mouth was loud enough to rouse even the ancient dead from their crypts.

Relinquishing her death grip on his shoulder, Pam quickly disentangled herself from the dying vampire before she became immersed in a puddle of blood.

Vampire guts were something that none of her clothes had a hope in hell of recovering from.

And as of right now, all Pam had was the clothes on her back.

Adjusting her leather jacket with a derisive snort, her gaze did a casual sweep around the neighborhood where Tara's scent and presence was tangible in the air. The houses circumventing the concrete were in shambles; tinfoil covered the windows; plaster covered the extensive cracks in the walls; and the grass in the front lawn was an earthy brown-lacking any virility or luster. It had been a long time since Pam had seen a living arrangement that was as….rustic as the one laid out before her. Roused by the terrified screams of the vampire she'd just disposed of-there was some rustling in the houses around her; urgent whispers filled the air as nosey humans debated about leaving the safety of their homes to observe the commotion outside.

Most seemed disinclined to even leave the front door.

No one was willing to risk their life to satiate their curiosity.

One bold woman, opened her door a crack, peering through the small sliver warily. The ebony skinned woman looked familiar, from the proud cheek bones and facial structure to the cautionary glint in her eye as she tilted her head to the side to drink in the gory scene in front of her. As soon as that woman's horrified gaze lighted on Pam and the puddle of blood beside her- A tremulous "Lord Jesus…" left the woman's lips.

One slender eyebrow rose to her hairline as the shocked woman slammed the door quickly.

And Pam didn't even need superior senses to hear what happened next.

_Male's voice: Lettie Mae, what's wrong baby?_

_Lettie: Vampire. There's a vampire outside. And so much blood…Tara…Tara!_

…_my god. Taraaaaa _

A muffled scream from inside the house, pleading for help. Pleading for Tara. Pam crossed her arms beneath her breasts, stifling her amusement as the acrid smell of fear tainted the air. It appeared her progeny was one of the many vampires participating in a monogamous human/vampire relationship. Although why Tara would choose to protect that frail older woman-confounded her. If Pam was correctly associating that voice with the right person; Tara had committed herself to protecting the same sorry bitch that had abused and neglected her; she was protecting the same sorry bitch that had disowned her; Ms. Lettie Mae Thorton.

It was appallingly ironic to her that the Tara's mother had managed to worm her way back into Tara's life just as starving vampires were becoming a prevalent the threat to the city. The timing was so utterly convenient…

Her chuckles tapered off into silence, and her fangs slickly protracted at the memory of her progeny crying over that wench. She would never forget the blood tears that had rolled down Tara's cheeks as that merciless woman tore the fucking ground away from her progeny-smiling as she "Washed her hands" of Tara, and the "abominable" nature of the vampire was now inherent to her. Pam didn't relish the memory, and she didn't care for Tara vowing to protect the same woman that would have let her daughter perish without a second thought. That sort of transgression was something Pam could never forgive.

Even if she was guilty of wronging Tara in a similar way.

Thinking over it, people had a terrible habit of becoming integral to Tara's life and then leaving her.

It pissed her off that she was among those ranks.

She couldn't boast she was superior to the human feces of society if she was capable of the same monumental fuck ups that they were. As much as it irked her to admit it, deserting her progeny put her on the same deplorable level as Tara's mother. Even if it was in pursuit of Eric, even if she couldn't divorce herself from her role as Eric's progeny, the bottom line was: She abandoned Tara when she needed her, and left her to temper the shit storm that the governer, and his disgusting war left behind-with only the words: _Take care of Willa_ to comfort her.

A noisy sigh escaped Pam's lips as she attempted to bury her aggravation to unearth at a later date, she was so engrossed in her own thoughts she didn't hear the approach of quiet footsteps until a very familiar scent enveloped her, and a very familiar voice caressed her senses.

"What in the fuck are you doing here?...and who is that?"

Pam's glacial gaze veered to the side, hungrily roving over the young vampire whose stunning profile she hadn't seen in two years. Her progeny had retained the same alluring appearance; albeit she looked angrier and more world weary. Dressed in jeans, and a form hugging tank top-Pam was cruelly reminded of simpler times when her progeny worked at Fangtasia with her, and was privy to a much more colorful wardrobe. Conscious of Pam's intense scrutiny-Tara's stormy gaze sidled from the puddle of blood next to her over to her tussled form. Pam could only imagine the thoughts running through Tara's mind right now, but the night kissed woman's stern features were implacable: Pam could no more discern her expression than she could go back in time and deter herself from putting that expression on Tara's face in the first place.

Through their bond, danger flirted with relief, and fury but she found it hard to ascertain which emotion was prevailing. It appeared Tara had become very guarded in her absence…

Unperturbed in the face of Tara's fury, and unmoved by the impregnable silence stretched out between them, Pam's only response to Tara's accusatory words was an amused smile creeping over her face, "That's hardly a pleasant way to greet your Maker after I came all the way out here, and disposed of this…filth." Pam drawled lazily, delivering a pointed kick to the blood puddle as she fell back on her sardonic habits.

Tara's face darkened considerably at her words. "Did you expect a fucking parade for doing once what I do all the damn time? I've been killing off shit stains like this for two years Pam. Two years, and now you swoop in-kill one, and expect a nice-welcome back. Are you kidding me?"

Her progeny was not amused.

And Pam, for once was at a loss over what to say to rectify the situation. She knew it wouldn't be easy coming back to Bon Temps-but she hadn't realized exactly how difficult it would be. Everything sarcastic that was coming to mind would only bury her further, and this was not one of those situations where she could just command Tara to calm the fuck down. "Look Tara-"

The ebony skinned woman's fangs protracted as she abruptly cut her off. "I don't want to hear it. You abandoned all of us to go search for Eric's sorry ass, and where is he? Did you even find that bastard?" Tara's eyes glimmered in anger as an uncompromising amount of pain laced through their bond. Pam flinched at the overwhelming amount of emotion in Tara's voice, battering her with insight; recounting without words the hours Tara had spent tormenting herself over Pam wondering-why she left, why she never contacted her, why Eric Fucking Northman took precedence over everyone else in Pam's life. An excruciating laugh stumbled from the young vampire's lips. "You didn't did you…You didn't find him, so now your reconciling yourself to be okay with the runner ups? We're filling the void he left behind?..Unfuckingbelievable…" Tara shook her head vehemently. "Yunno what Pam…just leave. I don't need this bullshit right now." Tara groused flatly, waving a dismissive hand at her before turning back towards her home-where her mother was watching the whole exchange with visible concern.

Pam had listened to Tara's tempestuous tirade, patiently enduring the heated words until her progeny was finished before responding. "Are you done?" She asked Tara softly, her icy blue eyes fixed stalwartly on Tara's stiff form, tracing the rigid set of her shoulders and trailing down to the shaking fists at her sides. "Look, I know you're pissed off at me, but you have to understand I did what I thought was necessary. A portion of my life will always belong solely to Eric, and it seems…so fucking ridiculous to leave him alone to deteriorate by himself. My intention wasn't to abandon you…But that doesn't change the fact that I did." Pam winced at the admission, her lips pursing into a thin unhappy line, before she continued speaking. "But Jesus Tara, I'm back now…and I'm not going anywhere." Pam stepped forward gently grasping Tara's shoulder, and turning her around.

The haggard expression on her progeny's face wasn't reassuring, and Pam bit back a frustrated sigh when Tara shrewdly shrugged out her grip.

A litany of curses surfaced in her mind.

Pam couldn't force the necessary words out.

Words that desperately needed to be said.

_I missed you._

_I'm sorry._

_I never should have left._

Tara's shook her head, her eyes glassy with pain. "You may have come back after figuring out you need us, but we don't need you… I don't need you. " Her progeny stated boldly; the cold declaration making Pam's breath stall, but Tara was relentlessly surging forward. "I figured out two years ago I don't need you to function. You never should have come back to Bon Temps." Her progeny shook her head, turning away from Pam and walking back into her house. Walking back into the space she shared with her mother, while Pam remained motionless in the street, still trying to absorb what had happened in the last thirty seconds.

Tara wanted nothing to do with her.

Her progeny was so affected by Pam's callous actions that she didn't even want meager contact with her.

This.

This is why she hated emotions she had no hope of controlling. Her feelings for Tara, and the guilt ravaging her were a giant pain in the ass.

She preferred it when she didn't give a damn.

Being a remorseless bitch was easier than fixing something that might be irreparably damaged.

"Well…fuck." Pam breathed the expletive out of clenched teeth.

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**And that's the end of chapter one.**

**Leave your thoughts xD**


	2. Chapter 2: Sharing is Caring

**I love you guys...**

**You don't even know how surprised I was when I saw the response to this story.**

**I wasn't really expecting that lol**

**I dunno how often this story will get updated because the college semester just started for me, but I had to write this after reading the reviews xD**

**And to answer one question that caught my interest:**

**I don't know if I want to change this to an M rated story because that means inevitably there will be a sex scene. As my friend Kiwi pointed out "No one asks for M rated stories for the cussing or the blood" , and I'm a bit wary about writing one because I have never actually written a sex scene before. xD Do you guys WANT one of those scenes? This is one those rare occurences where I don't mind adding what the readers want to the story. **

**Let me know via Pm or reviews.**

**And now~**

**Here is chapter 2. Enjoy~**

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**Chapter 2: Sharing is caring~**

Pam moved as surreptitiously as she could, passing silently under the flickering streetlamps as she paved her way to her own personal safehouse. After debating with herself for several hours, and staring forlornly at Tara's house-Pam had finally decided to forsake her own pathetic feelings of dejection and despondency. It wasn't in her nature to wallow in despair. She knew that coming back to Bon Temps would stir up feelings of acrimony, resentment, virulence, all of the unaddressed emotions Tara had been suppressing for the last two years. She knew that-and yet she was still reeling from her last encounter with her progeny. Expecting animosity was one thing; being on the receiving end of unreserved resentment that had been festering for two years was another. Pam had not prepared herself for Tara's reaction.

Nor had she expected Tara's bitterness towards her to cut so deeply.

Pam couldn't remember a time when she had been so afflicted by guilt; or addled by responsibility.

She felt like a god damn disgrace.

She couldn't justify her actions to Tara; she couldn't blame her for her resentment. The only thing she could really offer her was a weak apology that fell on deaf ears. Tara was no longer interested in hollow words; her progeny had no desire to listen to the mercurial reasoning behind her actions. The only compensation that was worthwhile to Tara was time. Pam owed her a debt of over two years in time-and she couldn't even begin to contrive a way to pay her back. No course of action seemed right enough. No gesture was grand enough; no words sincere enough. For the first time in a long time, Pam had no fucking idea what to do. Her indecisiveness was only augmented by Tara's newfound disdain for her.

By all looks and appearances, Tara didn't give a damn if she was there or not.

It sickened her how feeble her defenses were against her progeny.

If Pam couldn't feel the constant turmoil consuming Tara's end of the bond: if she wasn't intimately aware of her progeny's tendency to lash out when she was hurting or terrified-she would have abandoned this fool's errand already. As it stood, Pam had come to the conclusion that she wouldn't accomplish anything with Tara tonight, so she made an impetuous decision to re-establish herself in Bon Temps before she made things any worse for herself. Searching for Eric had drained a large portion of her resources-and because Pam had only taken a fraction of her personal information with her when she left-she'd been living a simple nomadic lifestyle for the past few months-biding her time until she came back home.

While she was traveling-most of her money went to coercing information out of reticent vampires that needed more than bullshit bribes to be convinced that their generosity was still intact.

To accommodate her expansive past time-She slept in cheap motels-wearing only what she was willing to wash and carry.

She never stayed in one place longer than a night because she still needed to hunt for blood, and too many missing bodies attracted attention.

Now that she was back in the incestuous little rumor bed of Bon Temps-she'd have to readjust her hunting methods. In a community of vampires that were in monogamous relationships with humans it wasn't wise to feed off of the locals-so although she'd be living in Tara's little city-she'd be hunting elsewhere. Her new prerogative was to not piss of anyone that might be detrimental to her health. Pam had weathered enough shitstorms to last several lifetimes. So now- In order to protect her diet, and standards of living, Pam was rooting herself in one of the old safehouses on the edge of town, away from the city's lovely citizens. Back when she still had a viable relationship with her Maker they had invested in a series of abandoned warehouses. Mostly for storage purposes. Over the course of a century-a lot of bullshit tended to accumulate-and an intelligent person stocked up on antiques.

However right now, Pam planned on utilizing her investment for other more practical purposes.

The warehouses themselves were more important than the shit inside.

She had no idea if the clandestine little buildings were still standing or if the governer's trigger happy fuck ups had torn them down too along with Fangtasia. But if those buildings were still intact-that meant Pam had a place to sleep when dawn came, and she desperately needed a place to stay right now. Scavenging, and sleeping in whatever obscene little cavity that could shelter her was getting old. Being one with nature, and debasing herself to live out in the forest to survive wasn't working for her anymore. Pam had never been a fan of Thoreau's doctrines; achieving the ability to be self reliant shouldn't mean liberating yourself from a life of luxury.

She rather enjoyed being caged by money.

It was satisfying.

And saved her from living in squalors like this….

Pam's purposeful steps slowed to a stop, as she realized exactly where she was. She'd finally reached one of the warehouses.

Her azure gaze darkened to an icy hue as she came face to face with her future residence. It was an old decaying building, built entirely of wood. The structure as a whole was ghastly to look at, and made even less attractive when one noticed the culpable stench permeating from the rotting base. Her lip curled in disgust as she noticed even more perturbing details that helped permanently condemn the building in her thoughts-but instead of acting on her revulsion-Pam found herself reluctantly grasping the wooden handle to the heavy sliding door, and wrenching it open.

The door groaned as her superior strength forced it aside, And Pam hesitantly entered the humid storage space, precariously stepping over the wooden threshold into an errant time capsule. Her intensive gaze slid sporadically around the room, coolly dismissing most of the historic elements that donned the walls, and took up precious floor space. Some of the more classy shit she recognized-but most of things in this room belonged to Eric. Viking sentimentals; swords, iron statues, invaluable keepsakes that were inherent to his legacy She couldn't afford to be picky about her living situation, but jesus, some of the items collecting dust in here were older than she was. While other items were a mystery that belonged neither to her, nor to Eric… Pam paused in her trek across the wooden floor as her foot brushed against something with an unusually silky texture. Peering down at her feet-one disbelieving eyebrow shot up as she stared at the lingerie strewn hapahazardly on the floor beneath her shoes. "Are you joking...?" Pam drawled lazily to no one in particular. Bending down to inspect the under garments-she noticed the tag on them was a recent purchase-meaning someone had bought them and left them there within the last few days.

Which most likely meant the owner of the panties was a lot closer to her than she was comfortable with.

Her gaze trailed around the room noticing there were more feminine clothes pieces lying around that she didn't recognize.

The realization that she wasn't alone wasn't a welcome one.

"I'm not really in the mood for company right now, so whoever you are, wherever you are-get the fuck off my property." Pam droned tiredly, her heightened senses straining to hear a response from whoever this trespassing wench was. Only silence answered her, but after a few tense moments of waiting-of glancing expectantly over her shoulder for an intruder, Pam's keen senses picked up a quiet sigh. A second later, rustling reached her, and a very familiar figure detached herself from the shadows. Pam's eyes widened as a woman she never thought she'd see again announced her presence.

"…Willa." The name left a sour taste in her mouth as it left her palate.

Eric's second progeny grinned plaintively, a sheepish expression crossing the young vampire's face. "Holy shit Pam…I uh…Didn't expect to see you." The words stumbled uncertainly from the girl's mouth, like she genuinely wanted to talk but had no idea how to converse with her. Pam found fiendish pleasure in the verbal disarray filling the air. They didn't have an especial amount of time to get used to each other before her extended hiatus. They briefly interacted while Willa was a captive in an asinine plot to usurp the facetious governer that sired her-but that was it. Realistically-Eric was the only thing that tied Willa to her, and Pam didn't feel very obligated to respect that bond. Two years ago she probably would have made the woman across from her miserable to satisfy her misguided feelings of envy, and indignation.

But now…

Pam didn't care whether this bitch lived or died.

She didn't even care that Willa was Eric's progeny still.

She just didn't care. Period.

The woman fell into that murky grey area, where Pam was content to ignore her existence all together.

Shaking her head at the young vampire's words, her lips thinned into a grim line. "That much is blatantly obvious." Pam murmured contemptibly, her expression utterly blank as she studied the woman in front of her. Willa shifted uncomfortably beneath Pam's penetrating gaze-still trying manufacture the appropriate reaction to her presence. "But the real question is not what I'm doing here...it's what you are doing here. Don't you have some inglorious penthouse to desecrate on the_ other_ side of town?" Pam demanded, vehemently voicing her displeasure.

She didn't share well.

That had always been her problem with Willa.

Wilting at Pam's furious expression the young vampire bit her lip nervously. "I needed a place to stay…After the war was over I had nothing left-because my dad disowned me… and I got tired of living with Ginger. She had more traffic running through her house, than most freeways do on the weekends." The brunette grimaced, as if the memory of Ginger's house physically hurt her. And perhaps it did. Living with Ginger would be an excruciating experience for any vampire. The woman lived adventurously and had a nasty habit of sleeping with anything with fangs. Not to mention she was one of those special humans who had been glamoured too many times to be lucid-and an incoherent human with a low IQ was a very poor roommate for a vampire.

Pam snorted derisively at the explanation. "And you couldn't stay with any vampires you know? Jessica maybe?"

"Do I look like a fucking leech to you?" Willa surprised herself-and Pam, by crossing her arms defensively beneath her breasts, her posture shifting so it coalesced with her indignation. "I don't want to mooch off of my friends-especially since all of them are paired up with a human and I'm still not..." The brunette trailed off, her lips curving downward in a slight frown. Gathering herself after pausing for a moment too long- Willa continued speaking in a much softer tone of voice. "Ginger suggested I do some digging and see if you and Eric owned any land that I could crash at for awhile.…I found this place a few days ago-and I've been staying here. "

That was fucking fantastic.

Pam sighed despairingly, running a frustrated hand through her golden tresses. Dawn was hovering on the edge of her senses-so it was too late to search one of the other warehouses-and she was too tired to think of a more convenient place to rest for the day. "It appears we'll be sharing a living space for awhile then." She mused leaning back against the dust ridden sofa behind her, and looking up at the ceiling. She couldn't think of anything more unpleasant than sharing a living space with another gods be damned baby vamp who had been turned into a vampire on a selfish whim.

Willa stared at her curiously.

"So…This isn't a social visit is it? You're coming back to Bon Temps for good?"

On second thought…

Engaging in a pitiful conversation about her motives for being here was infinitely worse than tolerating Willa's insufferable presence.

"I think we need to establish a _no talking_ rule before dawn." Pam grumbled irritably, stretching her leg over the sofa arm so she was straddling the archaic furniture. She had no intentions of pouring her heart out to this stripling of a girl. The only one who needed to be aware of Pam's motives was Tara….Unfortunately her progeny was not in a very receptive mood right now. In the past Pam's feelings had been so introverted-so geared towards protecting herself that she had recklessly devastated the ebony skinned woman. Now-Finding the right time to divulge her reasoning to Tara was going to be difficult because her progeny refused to be deceived by the same ploy twice.

To Tara Mae Thorton-Pam's feelings didn't constitute as a blessing-they were the most harrowing kind of torture.

And Tara wasn't interested in being a masochist anymore…

"Oh come on Pam, you've had two years to be silent. You can't expect to come home and avoid questions now. I mean you have to be curious about what's been going since you left." Willa rambled, her ability to annoy Pam exponentially increased by her superfluous need for oxygen. "You don't care what's happening to Jessica?...To Tara?" The young vampire asked after a significantly longer pause.

Pam frowned, throwing her other leg over the sofa arm so she was able to arrange herself comfortably into the couch cushions. "Oh yes. I'm dying to know what's going on with Jessica. Enlighten me." She grinned, revealing several rows of gleaming teeth. Willa swallowed the lump in her throat uneasily as Pam stared expectantly at her; her predatory grin eliciting an instinctual response in Eric's second progeny. Willa wanted to run but stubborn recalcitrant resolve anchored her feet to the floor-as Pam silently dared her to ask about Tara again.

"Well, Jessica is living at the old Compton place still, but most nights she stays at the Bellefleurs protecting her halfling." Will reported dutifully, twining her fingers together in a nervous gesture left over from her human days. The girl had wisely given up the line of questioning involving Pam's progeny.

"I'm not surprised she's participating in that stupid shit." Pam remarked coolly, shaking her head.

Jessica did always have a soft spot for hopeless cases.

A sentiment that Pam didn't share.

Or have the slightest desire to see reciprocated by someone else.

"She has to. Jessica promised to protect Adeline and ever since Andy was killed by a vampire she's been taking her role as protector so seriously. Well, actually-everyone's been taking their role as protector seriously. Most humans aren't allowed to go out at night without a vampire escort, and large gatherings of humans have been expressly forbidden when the sun sets. Apparently, that's like laying out an all you can eat buffet for destitute vampires." Willa shuddered, glancing distantly off to the side as horrific images surfaced in her mind. "It's been really bad Pam…"

Pam shrugged callously-unable to sympathize with the woman in front of her. "Shit happens."

Surviving the war, and massive genocide had changed Pam's perception of _bad._

Starving vampires weren't the end of the world.

Although her interest was peaked at hearing about the death of Andy Bellefleur. Wasn't his daughter Adeline half fae? And Jessica was adamant about keeping her alive? She could only imagine how miserable that venture must be. Fae's have an unnatural aversion to staying alive. Every fucking monster in the universe will crawl out of the woodwork just to kill or maim _**one.**_ Her experience with Sookie had taught her it's damn near possible to keep a fae safe-when the whole goddamn world wanted them dead. She didn't envy Jessica her job.

Smirking tiredly, Pam's head fell back against the sofa cushions, and Willa blinked-not sure how to react to her callous disregard.

"Well…Me and Tara try to check up on Jessica once or twice a week to make sure Adeline's okay. If you want-you can tag along tomorrow?" Willa offered carefully, measuring Pam's reaction with a knowing eye. Willa wasn't being very subtle. Obviously she was trying to maneuver Pam so she was in close quarters with her progeny, but after Tara's almost visceral reaction to her coming home-Pam knew that it was a bad idea. Crowding Tara wouldn't endear her to the dark skinned woman-it would just piss her off more.

"I'll pass." Pam murmured succinctly-exhaustion dragging out her response as she felt the insistent tug of dawn.

Blood was beginning to trickle down Willa's ear as the young vampire suffered through the early stages of the bleeds in order to prolong this uncomfortable conversation. Wiping the blood clear from her skin, Eric's other progeny made a face. "I really think you need to come Pam. Tara needs to see you…"

Tara's dismissive words surfaced in her mind; dominating her thoughts with a vengeance-and drowning out Willa's kind lies. "Give it a fucking rest. You have no idea what Tara needs and I don't need you to arrange a play date for me." Pam stated icily, her temper flaring dangerously as the words _You never should have come back to Bon Temps _circled in her thoughts-spinning in a never ending carousel. Her ego had taken a massive bruising earlier, and she wasn't ready to go confront her progeny again so soon. If she was going to survive the placation process and get back into Tara's good graces she was going to have to spread out the misery. Whether she deserved it or not- She could only take so much abuse in one day.

And Tara could only handle her in small doses right now.

They both needed time, because obviously reconciliation was not a simple 24 hour excursion.

It might take years before Tara trusted her again, and it would take an even longer time before the woman felt comfortable enough to let Pam back into her life.

Willa either didn't realize this, or didn't care-because she kept pushing.

"I've been here Pam-while you were off god knows where doing god knows what-I've been here helping pick up the pieces you and Eric left behind. I don't claim to know everything, but I know a progeny needs their Maker. Tara needs you even if she's not willing to admit it." Willa insisted stubbornly, not backing down from the impending argument. "And you owe it to her to make an effort."

Pam scowled darkly at Willa's words-loathing the truth in them.

She had no rebuttal-because unfortunately, Willa's words echoed the same message that her burgeoning conscience had been trying to ingrain her with for the past year.

She did owe Tara.

She had royally fucked up.

And she needed to approach this situation delicately or else risk losing Tara entirely…

An exasperated puff of air left her lips, and she graced Eric's other progeny with the most fabricated look of tolerance she could muster. "In the future when you get the urge to have a meaningful heart to heart discussion with me-resist the urge-If I had still been human- listening to this entire conversation would have given me cancer." She drawled lazily, relaxing against the couch, and covering her eyes with the palm of her hand.

Willa's unwavering determination to pursue this subject probably had more to do with Eric than Tara.

Her Maker was notorious for his familial ideals, but he had a terrible habit of leaving his self proclaimed family when things became unbearable, and because of that-Willa didn't have the support of a Maker. The young vampire had been paving her own path with no one to guide her, and consequently was drawing parallels between her own dilapidating circumstances, and what Tara was going through with Pam. Irony was a bitch because for the first time in over one hundred years being lumped in to the same category as Eric wasn't a compliment.

Right now being like Eric meant she was perceived as a self indulgent asshole that only cared about being a Maker when it was convenient for her.

It was a daunting misconception to overcome when she was surrounded by a close-knit group of progenies who had been terribly neglected by their Makers-and weren't keen on re-living the cycle of neglect and abandonment.

Jessica, Willa, and Tara….

Jesus Christ.

Even if she groveled on her hands and knees-her apology might not ever matter.

There was just too much incriminating evidence stacked against her-courtesy of her peers and her own malignant past, and Tara might be too battered; too weary to take that risk again.

"So I can take your exceedingly long silence as a _Yes I'll be there to visit Jessica tomorrow?_" Willa interrupted her self-deprecating thoughts before they truly began-distracting Pam from her own inane feelings of pessimism. Pam was beginning to cultivate a tedious fear of the future; a future that hadn't happened yet, and might not ever happen. When it came down to it-Feelings were such vacuous unpredictable things-and she was tired of being overwhelmed by them. Between yearning for Tara, and being justifiably concerned about losing her progeny-Pam had been left very little room for anything other than anxiety. And Worry. And fear.

And she was sick to death of those detestable emotions.

They coursed through her like a god damn disease-filling her with an inconsolable ache-and prompting her to ask questions that had never mattered to her before; Would Tara forgive her? Was Pam even deserving of forgiveness? Should she stay and mend what was broken between them? Or had she already burned that bridge?

The questions were endless.

The answers were obscure. Lost in an esoteric void that Pam couldn't even begin to penetrate yet.

The only way to cull her worries-and alleviate some of the tension and doubt that had been marinating between her and Tara for the past two years- was to be around her more; see her every day; and pray that their relationship didn't delineate any further. Another staggering loss could, and would destroy them-and delaying the inevitable would only make things worse.

So for her peace of mind, and in a vain hope to preserve the bond they still _**did**_ have-Pam found herself nodding slowly-the hand covering her eyes falling back to rest beneath her head. "Fine…I'll come visit Jessica with you and Tara tomorrow-but I'm only staying an hour-and we are never discussing this shit again. Or I will fucking end you." Pam eyes glinted savagely, as the sibylline promise rolled off of her tongue. She wasn't sure why she was talking about Tara with Willa of all people-but it was an experience that didn't need repeating.

What Pam did with her progeny wasn't anyone's fucking concern.

Especially not Willa's.

Out of the corner of her eye-she saw the young vampire hiding a smug smile, and had to bury the urge to brutally eviscerate her where she stood. She didn't appreciate being manipulated like this, but she wasn't in a position to complain. She had lost that privilege the day she left to search for her Maker. Rolling her eyes, Pam turned over on the cushions so her back was facing Willa, and left the brunette to gloat over her victory.

Willa should be proud…Forcing Pam to socialize when it was clearly the last thing she wanted to do was an impressive feat after all.

Ignoring the smirking brunette- Pam relinquished the hold she had on her senses, finally succumbing to the pull of dawn- and allowing sleep to claim her.

She was going to need all the rest she could get.

Because tomorrow…

Her trials began in earnest.

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**And that is the end of that chapter. Leave your thoughts~ xD**

**Also I apologize if Willa is out of character I haven't seen enough of her to know how she would act like in this situation so I'm kind of just...writing her how I want her to be like .**


	3. Chapter 3: She is Mine

**Okay...I had mad writer's block for this chapter. College is a terrible, evil muse killer.**

**But it ended up longer than the others...so I guess it works out xD**

**Once again half the credit goes to Kiwi7. She contributed quite a bit to this one xD And kept me focused so I got it out in a semi-decent time frame. **

**Haha, Still love you guys, and there will be officially be an M chapter in the future, but not for awhile. These two have a lot of work to do before they get to that point. Since I really don't wanna do this like the TB writers did where we didn't even KNOW they slept together until Pam said that one line about screwing on the beach :3**

* * *

**Chapter 3: She is Mine~**

"Wake up. Wake up. Wake up...For Fuck's sake Willa." Pam sighed despairingly, her patience wearing thin-as her vain attempts to rouse the young vampire proved to be for naught. She shook her again, more roughly this time, and was rewarded with a tired groan. It beguiled her how someone with heightened senses could manage to oversleep, but she'd be damned if the baby Vamp continued to languish in the older futon for another hour. Night had finally fallen and apprehension had been building in her mind ever since she woke from her light slumber. Every minute she was left alone with her thoughts was another minute for her anxiety to grow. For the last several hours, Pam had been obsessively agonizing over her impending reunion with her progeny. Tara wasn't going to be happy to see her-she was going to be pissed, and Pam wasn't looking forward to the imminent verbal onslaught that was bound to ensue this evening.

It was harrowing being drawn into a battle where she couldn't fight back, and she couldn't defend herself. Every word, every awful insidious thing that had been hovering on the edge of Tara's thoughts for the past two years-Pam just had to sit there and listen too. She had to remain silent in the face of righteous fury, because nothing she had to say was adequate. The same hellish feelings of loss, and abandonment that Eric had inflicted her with; she had inflicted her own progeny with-and now Tara was finally getting the satisfaction of divulging how hurt, and dejected, and fucking worthless Pam had made her feel.

In the two years Pam was gone, she was constantly assaulted by violent feelings of despair and longing. Tara's tumultuous emotions consumed their bond-and made it so very hard to focus on anything else. Every night she began to think less and less about Eric and more about the hardened woman she had left behind. To distract herself she began seeking solace in the arms of strangers-moving from one cold bed to another. Submerging her nights in pleasure and exotic company. She was never satiated though-and eventually she noticed a trend in the women she kept seducing: all of them looked like Tara. Every last one of them-shared the same basic features as her progeny.

When she wasn't engrossed in looking for Eric-she was constantly haunted by Tara's dark visage.

It became unbearable.

Before she could ignore the incessant feeling of tenderness that always came with Tara's name; she could keep her attachment to her progeny at bay because she cared for her; She wanted her-but she didn't need her. For over 100 years Pam hadn't needed anyone besides Eric.

She was slowly coming to the halting realization that things were different now.

She needed her progeny.

When she was with other women all she could see was Tara.

All she could taste was Tara.

All her body wanted was Tara.

It sickened her to allow anyone else into her bed, and after two years she stopped lying to herself.

Pursuing Eric became pointless.

She had absolute faith in her Maker's ability to stay alive.

Clearly the bastard didn't want to be found, and she was wasting precious time searching.

So instead of devoting herself to a fruitless cause for god knows how much longer-Pam came home to Louisiana-To Tara.

And now...

Tara didn't need her.

It was a rude awakening for Pam, because for the longest time she equated being safe with being unattainable. Being unattainable hadn't protected her from getting hurt, it had only buried her further in denial. Pam liked to pretend she didn't give a damn and she liked to fool people into thinking that she had an invulnerable persona- but most of the time Pam's attitude was an elaborate facade that had taken years to perfect. It was infuriating that 100 years hadn't done a damn thing for her. She still hid behind disdainful looks and biting comments. She still had an utterly pathetic emotional capacity when it came to sustaining the relationships in her life- and she still acted like she was beyond reproach when she was just as dysfunctional and inherently flawed as every other vampire

Getting bitch slapped by the universe, so she was forced to come down off of her pedestal was killing her. Slowly but surely decimating what little remained of her pride. The majority of her arrogance could be attributed to the brief span of time she was a human, and was only augmented when she became a vampire. Recently any reasons she might have to be proud had deserted her.

Seeing the fury in Tara's face-the utter betrayal, and disgust creasing her features-made Pam cognizant of one thing;

She had made a giant fucking mess of things.

Confronted by her unforgivable mistakes-and innumerable failures Pam felt distinctly out of her element. She was anywhere and everywhere on the emotional spectrum shifting from humbled; to ashamed; to furious; to guilty; to remorseful-to unimaginably repentant. No emotion lingered for too long, but the tempestuous tide of pure unadulterated feeling washing over her in waves-was drowning her, and Pam didn't know if she should swim or let herself drift seamlessly into the silent abyss.

She still wasn't convinced that trying to re-integrate herself into Tara's life was the right thing to do. She had walked away from her progeny without even a proper good bye two years ago, and she wasn't naive enough to believe that upon her return Tara would welcome her back with open arms. Her progeny wasn't that gracious. There wasn't a scorned woman on Earth that was that gracious.

Which is why tonight-Pam expected nothing pleasant.

Angry words.

Furious whispers.

A veiled threat or two...

Those were the least threatening reactions she could expect.

Honestly, the whole thing was a giant fucking joke that was destined to end badly. A low growl vellicated from within the confines of her throat and Pam glared down at the prone body sprawled haphazardly over a pile of clothes on the ground. Willa still refused to wake up...Pam had shaken her, loudly demeaned her, and threatened to set her on fire-and the girl had barely twitched. It was beyond comprehension that a vampire that can hear a rain drop from over one hundred feet away-can manage to sleep through loud clamoring and Pam's insistent prodding. Growing truly frustrated with the comatose brunette Pam voiced her frustration with violence-lashing out with a booted foot-and slamming a leathered toe into Willa's ribs.

The reaction was immediate.

The baby Vamp hissed in pain, rolling away from the offending foot like it had burned her. Blinking blearily, Willa curled into herself rubbing the sore spot till the pain faded. "What the hell is wrong with you?" The curled mass groaned, slowly unfurling to reveal the lithe form of a young woman.

Pam shook her head morosely. "Right now, you are what's wrong with me. Are you aware of how fucking ridiculous your sleeping schedule is?" She asked briskly, crossing her arms beneath her breasts as she peered down at Willa's half-awake expression. Grumbling darkly, Eric's second progeny rubbed the exhaustion from her eyes, sitting up with a grunt. Hair in disarray-clothes hideously wrinkled, and dried blood crusted along the edge of her lip- Willa appeared to be the walking dead. It was rare to encounter an immortal who still looked so comically decrepit when they awoke from their daily slumber.

"My god you're moody." The younger vampire groused unable to understand Pam's brusque attitude. She wasn't in a rush, and the antiquated idea that she should be an early riser based simply on principle-hadn't settled in for her yet. Gathering her tumultuous thoughts-the baby vampire suppressed a yawn. "We don't have a certain time we have to get there...and we have to stop by Tara's first anyways. I normally walk over to Jessica's with her." Willa murmured-trailing a hand through her unkempt mane as she spoke.

Pam's poor mood soured even further at the news.

She'd rather get hit with an HV bullet than torture herself by going to Tara's humble abode on the other side of town. It was one thing to endure Tara's heated glares while on neutral territory, but intruding in Tara's space while her progeny was living in that damnable shack she called a house-where that damnable mother of hers was living-was an idea that had no appeal for her. Pam despised Lettie Mae Thornton on a personal level, and she hadn't even had the unfortunate experience of meeting the woman."Fucking hell," She grumbled, addressing no one in particular.

Willa-who was finally lucid enough to hold a decent conversation, glanced up curiously at Pam. "What are you pissed about? Going to Tara's? ...Are you scared?"

Scared?

Pam snorted derisively, shifting her weight so Willa could see her frank look of disbelief. "Hardly." The older vampire drawled, a smirk creeping across her features. "But you should be. I doubt tonight will be the heartwarming reconciliation you have in mind." She informed the baby vamp-her tone flat and indiscernible. Her voice had lowered to her normal sardonic drawl, as she retreated behind her invulnerable mask. Scaring someone else shitless did wonders for Pam's mood-and she was in desperate need for a boost because truthfully she could feel a cold sliver of fear inching down her spine.

Fear of the unknown.

She didn't know if she could trust herself to play nice tonight.

She didn't know if being nice would even matter.

"Let's go Willa." She urged impatiently-shrugging into her leather jacket. The only way to conquer her trepidation; her fear of the future was to stop avoiding the problem, and right now every person with the name Thorton was a huge ass problem. It was going to be a grueling test of character interacting with Tara and her mother tonight. Pam was in a rush to finish the exhausting experience so she could compartmentalize the last few days-and lock tonight away in a steel case-never to see the light of day again.

Willa stood up from her self made bed of clothes, dusting herself off in an attempt to look presentable. Pam wasn't sure how Eric's second progeny managed to live in this damp-decaying building without any modern semblance of hygiene-and yet Willa didn't smell or look like someone who hadn't had the luxury of a shower in weeks. Willa's unsightly appearance was tempered by her body-that was still without blemish and her wrinkled-but not yet appalling wardrobe. Willa 's over all look was...tolerable. "Hold on one second." Eric's second progeny brushed past Pam-striding over to an old Victorian dresser.

Opening the top drawer-that had been onerously decorated with the most prominent carvings of the age-Willa withdrew an automatic hand gun and a case of cartridges. Even though the brunette wasn't facing her Pam could see the translucent glint of the bullets that Willa was loading into the gun, and her fangs protracted with a soft click. "What the fuck are you doing with those?" She demanded angrily, her glacier blue orbs fixed stalwartly on the automatic weapon pointed at the floor.

It was one thing for a human to carry a gun heavy laden with HV bullets.

But to see a vampire using the same cartridges that had helped oppress their entire species was unsettling.

Pam wasn't blind-she could see the practicality of it.

But it was the principle of thing.

Watching those fucking bullets engrave themselves in Tara's flesh had left Pam with a natural aversion to them. She hadn't forgotten the way her progeny had screamed and writhed in agony while she was observing helplessly from the sidelines-unable to do anything but hold her hand, and whisper sweet nuances to her.

_Its okay baby. I'm here. It's okay._

It wasn't fucking okay.

Tara had been overwhelmed by her own anguish,, and Pam couldn't do a damn thing to assuage the misery she had been in.

The weapon Willa was haltering stirred up the self same feelings of uselessness and dread. Her hands clenched into trembling fists at her sides, and Pam took a deep steadying breath-affecting a mask of icy indifference that wasn't fooling anyone. Willa was staring at her like she had grown another head-unable to discern the reason behind Pam's aggravation. Talking carefully like one would to a rabid beast that refused to be soothed-Willa pointed to the gun haltered in her belt. "We all carry these; me, Tara, and Jessica. The vampire attacks happen 3 or 4 times a week so we needed some sort of leverage to even the playing field."

Pam shook her head slowly. "For fuck's sake." She murmured trying to come to terms with what Willa was saying.

Guns with HV bullets were hardly what she considered a first line of defense.

But she had to remember that things had changed.

In her absence-technology had evolved.

And although stakes were still an effective way of killing a vampire-a gun was more convenient.

Especially when human lives were hanging precariously in the balance.

"Let's just go." She breathed-her disdain for the human race growing in spades. They were the only species on the planet that were capable of convincing a vampire to discard traditional methods that still worked for lazy conventional methods that condemned their race even further. Metaphorically-Pam was going to be that one person that brings a "knife" to a gun fight.

Consequentially, that was usually the first person to die.

But to be fair her luck had run out a long time ago...

"Age before beauty Pam," Willa gestured grandly towards the heavy wooden door-allowing the older vampire to leave the condensed space of the warehouse first. Sending the smirking brunette a lethal glare, Tara's Maker grasped the damp handle tightly, almost splintering it with her strength, and removed the one barrier keeping them from the atramentous night waiting for them outside. Feeling the cool air blanketing the evening, Pam exhaled heavily as she took the first step into oblivion-leaving the safety of her storage space on the wharf for the ambiguous darkness layered over Bon Temps.

Willa trailed behind her.

Blissfully silent.

Consumed in her own world.

Which left Pam alone to contend with her thoughts.

Thoughts that were constantly revolving around the visible changes that had accumulated over the last two years. Sauntering through the empty streets at a vampire speed-gave Pam the opportunity to casually study her surroundings. While she was indisposed in another country- Bon Temps had decided to embrace innovation, and renovate some of the more outdated facilities that used to desecrate the town's image. Sole proprietors that had been struggling to stay afloat the last few years-had finally admitted defeat-and sold their businesses to lucrative companies. Mega stores that hadn't even been considered for an investment before had thrived in the face of the town's failing economy.

The vampire/human war had utterly destroyed the small business man, and made monstrous companies considerably richer.

It was hardly shocking news to Pam to see a plethora of new shops, and stores occupying space on Bon Temp's street corners.

Someone always profited from war.

She'd noticed that even Merlotte's was no longer Merlotte's.

The establishment had been re-named Bellefleur's...

After one of the deceased Bellefleur men perhaps?

It was food for thought. Both Andy and Terry Bellefleur had met an unfortunate demise in the last decade- and although Pam wasn't privy to knowing the men, personally or on a professional basis-she was still aware of the roles they used to play in Bon Temps. She had gathered a fair amount of information on Eric's behalf while he was the Sheriff-and he liked to be thorough. Their were a sparse few residents in this town-that Pam had studied at length. She could write a genealogy for them and trace their origins all the way back to whatever swampy shithole their ancestors crawled out of. The Bellefleurs were not among those select few people though, and she had virtually no interest in investigating how they suddenly came into possession of a bar that used to belong to Sam Merlotte.

Bellefleur's.

Merlotte's.

She didn't give two shits who that prosaic outhouse was named after.

It was all the same really.

Her concern wasn't in the existential changes that Bon Temps had allowed-it was the structural changes that bothered her-the social anomalies that were now inherent to the city. Even though her silent trek with Willa was coming to an end-Pam hadn't seen one person on the street tonight; not one human; not a dog; nothing with a viable pulse was stirring. Every avenue, boulevard, and highway that Pam had encountered was utterly dead.

Even to her heightened senses-it was eerily silent.

Like the entirety of Bon Temps was holding it's breath-waiting for some unspeakable terror to be unveiled.

Willa's hushed words surfaced in her thoughts. _Most humans aren't allowed to go out at night without a vampire escort, and large gatherings of humans have been expressly forbidden when the sun sets. Apparently, that's like laying out an all you can eat buffet for destitute vampires._ The previous night, when the younger vampire had alluded to a human curfew-Pam had been thinking in general terms-she didn't think that edict had been executed so militantly. Even the animals were determined to fade into obscurity. Secreting themselves in the darkest shadows, and burrowing in the most camouflaged shelters.

Perhaps she had underestimated the threat.

Vampires driven by ravenous hunger could pose a threat...

In numbers.

Frowning-Pam increased her pace as they reached the edge of the forest that circled around the austere neighborhood Tara was living in. Her progeny had been dealing with a more turbid problem than she originally thought, if her inference was accurate. Roaming vampires that held an advantage in large numbers were treacherous even to an aged vampire-and the odds of three baby vampires fairing well against such peril were slim...But Tara, Jessica, and Willa had been doing just that. For two years without any Maker's support-they had managed to stave off the throng of bloodthirsty beasts that were desperate for human sustenance.

Out of necessity, they stopped relying on their Makers.

To protect their humans.

And that's why Tara wasn't exactly thrilled to see her now. The night kissed woman had been through hell-protecting her mother. Protecting her friends.

And now Tara was protecting herself.

_Well, fuck me._

Pam thought disparagingly, her azure gaze fixed on the Thorton's door as Willa strolled past her to ring the doorbell. Her fingers twitched, clenching and unclenching as she heard shuffling from within. She was justifiably worried about how well this insipid little meeting was going to go. Willa hadn't informed Tara that Pam was coming along. It wasn't the kind of surprise she would appreciate if the situation was reversed. But it was too late to back out now.

There was more shuffling behind the door, and Pam abruptly straightened as the rustic lock was jiggled open, and was immediately followed by the door groaning outwards. The last person she wanted to see stood staring back at the vampires on her porch with a wary expression. Framed in the lamplight from the house's interior, Lettie Mae's reed thin form filled the entrance way-and the dark skinned woman smiled hesitantly-her eyes trailing cautiously from Willa to Pam. "Willa hun, it's great to see you..." Tara's mother greeted the baby vampire- embracing her warmly-after staring for a moment too long. It was like Lettie had to mentally resign herself to touch Willa's disheveled form.

"Hey Mrs. T." Willa responded much more sincerely-returning the embrace without hesitation. Pam was revolted when the hug lasted longer than a second as if Willa was starved for human contact and maternal affection. Meanwhile, Lettie appeared to be hiding her distaste behind a plastic smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

This soulless bitch...

The older vampire bit her lip to keep from voicing her crude observation and after all the nauseating formalities were out of the way, the women drew apart-and Tara's mother reluctantly turned her attention to Pam.

A suffocating amount of tension fermented between them.

Asphyxiating Lettie, and straining Pam-who wasn't pacified by the acrid scent of fear filling the air.

Pam was internally torn.

First of all, she instinctively despised this woman because Tara was hers not Lettie's. Her progeny may have been Lettie's daughter in life, but in death Lettie Mae Thornton had completely forsaken Tara. It wasn't Lettie that coerced her daughter out of the tanning bed when Tara was contemplating suicide; it wasn't Lettie that trained her progeny in vampire ettiquete-acclimating her to her vampiric nature; and it wasn't Lettie that willingly surrendered to the authority in Tara's place to ensure that the night kissed woman didn't die prematurely-that was Pam, and she didn't do any of that on a whim-she did that because she genuinely gave a damn about Tara. Where the hell was Lettie during any of those miserable experiences?

Pam wanted to dismember her for even thinking she had the right to claim Tara as her kin.

Tara's mother had waived all of her rights to be a mother at Fangtasia-three years ago. And it was amazingly convenient that the same moment that humans needed protection from stray vampires is the same moment that Lettie felt the need to redeem herself-and make up for every fucked up thing she had ever done to her daughter.

Pam was convinced that Lettie Mae was just reaping the benefits of Tara's loyalty.

And it was taking her to new heights of anger.

Willa cleared her throat awkwardly. "Mrs. T, this is Pam-Pam this is Mrs. T." She introduced them politely, oblivious to reason the clearing was drowning in tension. After swallowing heavily, Tara's mother found her voice, and began to speak tremulously-but was unable to hide the blatant fear in her eyes as she extended a hand out for Pam to shake.

"Evening Pam," The dark skinned woman greeted her.

Pam eyed the offered appendage contemptibly. "Not if you were the last human on earth." Pam drawled, folding her arms beneath her breasts. She was offended by the mere gesture, and could feel her temper flaring dangerously. Lettie's fabricated compassion insulted her intelligence-and she wouldn't be another recipient of her sad "redemption" ploy. Pam would do many things for Tara, but she wouldn't complacently accept a self serving bitch that was just using her progeny for her own benefit, and planned on discarding her later. Although, her decision could and would severely hurt her penance, and her chance at atonement. Resolving herself with a weary sigh, Pam glared unamusedly at Tara's mother. "Are you going to invite us in, or were you planning on conversing with us on the porch all evening?"

"Pam." Willa hissed, aghast at her callous behavior.

Tara's mother sputtered in surprise. "Oh Lord, I'm sorry. Come in Come in." The ebony skinned woman opened the door wider so they could enter, and Pam wordlessly surged past her into the house. Willa a step behind her. As soon as they entered the cramped space, Pam was surrounded by Tara's musky scent. However, it was faded-like her progeny had been gone for an hour or so. After tasting the air again for a more definitive read-Pam could conclude that Tara wasn't home right now.

Feeling a small measure of relief, that the uncomfortable meeting was going to be delayed for awhile longer Pam amused herself by examining the place her progeny called home. Studying the cracked plaster on the walls, and the stained floorboards-Pam couldn't help but be reminded of her brothel from over a century ago. When she had inherited the workspace, it had been deteriorating just like the house she was standing in. Only after an atrocious amount of work-had she been able to to reopen it as her own business. However the situation here differed from her own painful experience, Tara's house didn't need to be re-invented, it needed to be torn down.

This hovel was a fucking disaster.

"Sorry about her Mrs. T...she's been out of the loop for awhile, and she's in a pissy mood" Willa apologized for her, knowing damn well Pam wasn't feeling contrite for her words. "We just stopped by to pick up Tara. Do you know where she is?"

"Ah, you just missed her." Tara's mother replied helpfully, folding her hands together thoughtfully as she ruminated over her daughter's whereabouts. "She went out to hunt an hour ago. It's been awhile since she's had blood."

"Oh I se-"

"Wait..." Pam cut Willa off, unable to believe what she was hearing. Did she miss something? Wasn't the whole point of being in mutually beneficial relationship with a human, to offer protection in exchange for blood? Why the hell was Tara out hunting for blood if her mother had sworn to feed her? "Didn't Tara claim you as her human to protect?-why in the hell is she out hunting if you are her food source?"

Lettie hung her head in shame-to hide her expression, but Pam swore she saw a flicker of anger cross the aging woman's features. "I was offering her my blood for awhile, but...Last year...I had a stroke-so I began taking Warfarin which-"

"Is a god damn blood thinner." Pam finished the sentence for her flatly, equal measures of disgust and anger entering her tone. If a vampire feeds off of a human who has been medicated to have thin blood, the human is in danger of having a stroke, a heart attack, blood clots or something equally perturbing. Tara must have been exposed to any number of distressing issues concerning her mother's health, and made the impulsive decision to not feed off of Lettie. Putting her mother's health before her own.

In other words, Tara was choosing to protect her mother without expecting a fucking thing in return.

The older vampire chuckled hollowly, in a way that held very little amusement. "So...what you're telling me is that Tara is going to such great lengths to keep you alive, and in return you are useless in every sense of the word. She can't even rely on you for one damn thing. And in the end it doesn't matter anyways... because you're just using her for protection." Pam rationalized-staring coldly at the now fidgeting woman in front of her.

She was appalled at the absurdity of this situation.

Why was her progeny putting up with this shit?

Feeling indignant at Pam's words-Tara's mother shook her head vehemently, denying the chilling truth that Pam was accusing her of. "I love my daughter." Lettie Mae said fiercely, raising her voice for the first time since Pam and Willa had entered her home. "I did the best I could, till I couldn't anymore. What right do you have to come into my house, and tell me I'm guilty of anything? Who are you to judge me? You don't know me, or my daughter."

"Pam." Willa cautioned, stepping in between Lettie, and Tara's Maker.

She could practically feel Pam's temper boiling over.

Pam smiled, an icy sinister smile that made Tara's mother flinch violently. Stalking forward-feeling every inch the enraged, incensed, and undeniably malignant immortal that she was, she none-to-gently shoved Willa aside, her superior strength forcing the baby vamp out of her way so she was face to face with her antagonist. Moving with tantalizing slowness-Pam reached out with a hand, gently tracing the contours of Lettie's face- as the aging woman become utterly still. "Miss Lettie Mae Thornton," Pam purred, enunciating every syllable succinctly-her soft words more terrifying than if she had threatened to disembowel the ebony skinned woman herself. "I believe we may have misunderstood each other. I'm not a friend of Willa's. I'm not an acquaintance of Tara's. I'm the one-that turned your daughter into a vampire." Pam tapped the edge of her manicured nail against Lettie's cheek and Tara's mother inhaled sharply. "Tara is my progeny...and that gives me every fucking right to be pissed off at the person who came into my fucking bar and disowned her, and then conveniently discovered a conscience three years later when she needed protection from stray vampires." Pam drawled, her voice hardening with each sequential word that only added to her fury.

"Pam. Seriously-" Willa pleaded, her eyes wide at the imminent confrontation.

Pam snorted, not even sparing the younger vampire a glance. "What Willa?" She demanded impatiently.

"Goddamit Pam..." A new, and very familiar voice groused. Anger, exasperation, and annoyance that weren't her own filtered through the bond connecting her to Tara, and Pam's gaze slowly sidled over to the door where her newly arrived progeny was glaring heatedly at her. "Back the hell off my mother." The ebony skinned vampire husked out of clenched teeth, her stormy gaze fixated on the hand that was grasping Lettie's chin.

"As you wish." Pam sighed noisily, and released her steely grip on Tara's mother.

A disappointed expression ghosting across her face, as her quarry immediately rushed over to Tara.

She was going to receive hell for this.

She could feel it.

And yet she had no regrets.

Despite how pissed off her progeny was right now.

After drawing Lettie Mae away from Pam and making sure that her mother was okay, Tara scowled darkly at her Maker-saying four simple words that no person ever wanted directed at them.

"We need to talk."

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**I love drama :3 **

**Kiwi said this was an evil cliffhanger? Was it? :o**

**Bwahaha What do you all think? Remember Reviews-even bad ones are like...aphrodisiac for a writer xD so leave your thoughts~ Next chapter will be up...soonish. I'm going to try to update every 4-7 days.**


	4. Chapter 4: No One Understands

**Lol I love you guys.**

**But as you can plainly see, I hate myself a little for how late this is, and I apologize for that.**

**Bluemoone-Haiiiiiiii xD lol Kiwi told me you did a happier fic, and I read it, and it was beautiful. xD **

**And Alice as fun as it would be to help with the show the True Blood Creators wouldn't let me anywhere near the writing staff because If they did I would have killed off Sookie several seasons ago, and done a spin off with everyone else. And it would have been emotionally traumatizing. And everyone would be forced to wait for episodes cuz my muse comes and goes.**

**And just no...**

**Anyways here is a very very late update...**

**Thank Kiwi for pestering me until I finished. I hope it makes up for the horrendous **

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**Chapter 4: No One Understands.**

Pam sauntered after Tara, a deliberate pause in each step as they ventured further and further into the sea of green vegetation. Judging by the stubborn set in Tara's jaw, and the incensed expression on her progeny's face-the silence brewing between them was so the night kissed woman could stoke the embers of an already disastrous flame. Pam was in deep shit. She knew the consequences of her deplorable actions regarding Tara's mother would come back to haunt her, but she had been hoping for the backlash to happen at a later date. She was dreadfully unprepared to be belittled like a fucking child that had been "Acting out" for her own selfish reasons. Pam understood on a primal level that she was in the wrong for this no matter what her intentions were, but that didn't make her any less defensive. It didn't change the fact that she still considered Lettie the lowest form of human feces, and she wished the aging woman a slow and painful death.

Tara didn't share her sentiments though.

In Tara's eyes, Pam was terrorizing her mother on a petty whim, not because she cared about Tara but because she was making a point and satiating an ever inflating ego that demanded restitution for the agony Lettie had inflicted to her; inflicted to a vampire of the Northman family. Tara thought Pam was being a bitch because she _could,_ and Pam hadn't given her any reason to think differently.

From day one, her appalling lack of communication with her progeny had always been a problem.

Short of pouring her metaphorical guts out to Tara, Pam wasn't sure she could express herself in a way that was clear. It was one thing not to see eye-to-eye to with her progeny, but Pam had alienated the woman she cared about for a very long time, because it was safer to hide behind cold indifference than it was to allow Tara to see beneath the surface of her hard exterior.

Pam had purposely held the dark skinned woman at a distance, not because she loathed her progeny or because she couldn't stand her presence, but because she could; because Tara's life amounted to an infinitesimal number of things to Pam, and that genuinely terrified the blond vampire. Every person she allowed herself to become attached to inevitably ended up disappointing her, or vice versa. Every relationship Pam had managed to foster over the last century whether it was the ephemeral relationship with her estranged family, or the eternal relationship with her wayward Maker- had slowly delineated into nothing , nothing but solemn memories. Cracked fragments of a broken art piece that would never be whole again.

Why should her relationship with Tara end any differently?

Insanity was defined as the practice of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

She kept investing herself in people hellbent on destroying themselves for any fucking justification under the sun.

And then expecting them not to make her miserable.

And every time she was sorely disappointed.

Even as her century old gaze fixed on the slender slope of her progeny's back-studying the stiff set of her shoulders, and the dangerous edge to her step Pam couldn't help but envision how things could be different right now if she had properly addressed their problems ages ago. She might be going with a moonlit stroll with her progeny instead of being led like a doe eyed fawn to be slaughtered by a butcher.

"I just...don't get you Pam." Tara's light tenor carried to her over the breeze, and Pam's abysmal mental trainwreck slowly began to careen off the tracks as she saw her progeny's steps falter. Their silent trek across the forest was over it seemed The hushed quiet was finally broken, and Pam was forced to direct her attention to the woman in front of her. Through their bond, Pam detected a feasible amount of resentment, anger, and yearning. So much raw emotion that Pam was staggering under the weight of it. Tara was finally ready to talk even if Pam wasn't ready to listen. "First you tell me it's just _you and me living in the wind. _You protected me. You helped me come to terms with being a vampire. Then everything went to hell, and suddenly you're telling me I don't mean shit compared to Eric." Tara's stormy eyes darkened as she tried to temper the volatile emotions rising to the surface. "You blow me off like I never mattered in the first fucking place, then as soon as he leaves you follow him like a lost puppy. You were gone for two years. Two fucking years. Why are you here? Why are you back in my life acting like you suddenly give a shit about me again?" The ebony skinned woman demanded angrily, slamming her fist against a tree. The bark cracked beneath her superior strength, and Pam took a step forward wanting nothing more than to grab the shaking fist, and justify her impulsive actions.

But one look at Tara's livid expression cured her of that urge.

Her progeny didn't want to be touched.

Or reassured.

Tara wanted to know why.

Why Pam was back?

Why Pam had put her through hell?

Why had Pam chosen Eric?

The blond vampire let a soft sigh escape her supple lips, clenching and unclenching her fingers at her sides. "You think I don't give a shit about you?" The ebony skinned woman scoffed disbelievingly at the bold question but Pam knew better. Tara wanted to believe she did, _ached_ to believe her. But Pam had already proven to be unreliable. "Oh fuck me," Pam sighed, running a hand through her silky tresses as she gathered her thoughts, "I know my words and actions don't match up, but you have to know that I always cared about you. What we have holds merit. It means something. " Pam forced the softly spoken words out with effort. "You're the only person in this world besides Eric that matters." She admitted, her voice softening as the foreign words left her lips.

"You're full of crap Pam," Tara scowled fiercely, her monotone fading as she voiced her thoughts. "It took you two years to come to this revelation, and every day you felt me. You felt my sorrow, my pain, my grief. And you did nothing. You ignored me...like you always do when Eric is involved." Tara's eyes glazed over with tears she refused to shed. "And you expect me to believe that suddenly Eric Northman isn't the center of your fucking world...I can't do this with you again Pam." The night kissed woman shook her head, her tone falling to a gentle whisper.

Wincing at the barbed words, the older vampire tried to think of a viable response.

Anything to banish Tara's broken tone from her mind.

Anything to not see the anguish on the dark skinned woman's face.

"I'm not asking you to...I'm not asking you to take a backseat to Eric, but Tara I need you to understand something. He's my Maker and I will never give him up. Ever." Pam emphasized her words with a subtle shake of her head. "And you can't preach to me about cutting ties, because let's be brutally honest- you will never abandon your mother will you?" The flicker of anger and indignation that creased Tara's features was answer enough, and Pam pressed on stubbornly. "Even though she made you fucking miserable you can't hate her. You can't let her go. It is the exact same thing for me. I can't hate Eric. It' impossible...But I stopped looking for him. I came back here.." Pam took a shallow breath and rushed the words out-hating emotions and all the tedious feelings that came with them. "I came here because I actually missed you...and this shitty place." Pam gestured to the greenery around them. A very miniscule part of her had missed Bon Temps and all the inbred horrors that came with it, but there wasn't an ounce of her being that hadn't missed Tara. "And as terribly romanticized as this sounds, I want to make things right." The terrible cliché left a horrid taste on her palate but it had to be said. The dark skinned woman needed to be aware where they stood, and that Pam had no cards to play.

The older vampire would do damn near anything to start reconstructing her relationship with Tara.

And she needed her progeny to know that.

This time there wouldn't be potentially fatal misconceptions.

No laughable miscommunication errors.

Everything was out in the open.

The prolonged silence in the air wasn't reassuring, and measuring the dark expression on her progeny's face made Pam worry she had misspoken. She wasn't adept at relating what she was feeling. Every time something emotional left her mouth she felt like she was regurgitating the decrepit musings of a dying poet. Her replies were elaborate and creative but appallingly superficial. In the same breath she was apologizing for the past she was also admonishing Tara for the present. Her own inept handling of the situation was why Tara was so infuriated, and Pam was tired of history repeating itself over and over again—where she misrepresented how she was feeling, and Tara drew even further away from her.

"Pam...have you ever thought I don't want you to fix things? Our relationship was fucked from the very beginning. You didn't even want me as your progeny, I was just a bargaining chip so you could get Sookie to help you makes amends with that asshole." Tara recalled the past with a startling show of visual acuity, surprising Pam because the debacle Tara was referring to happened while her progeny was comatose. Tara had suffered a bullet wound to the head to protect Sookie Fucking Stackhouse, and shouldn't be remembering the grotesque details from that hellish experience. Tara's flawless recollection skills never ceased to amaze her, and her progeny wasn't done yet. Tara was going for broke, because the next words she uttered would haunt Pam for several years to come. "If you want to make things right, why don't you release me as your progeny?"

Pam's breath stalled.

An unprecedented amount of terror coursed through her, almost choking her.

What the hell was Tara talking about?

Release her?

Why?

Pam's typical abrasive response was devoured by the uncompromising amount of fear and anger ravaging her slender form. She hadn't considered releasing her progeny in two years, not since the day she left Bon Temps. Being suddenly reintroduced to the idea filled her with dread, and a plethora of irrational emotions she had no hope of controlling or accepting. Tara watched her, stone faced, as Pam was plagued by her own very mortal feelings. It took the older vampire several long, aching moments to recover after being consumed by the initial maelstrom of shock, confusion, and anger. Finally one strangled word left her lips. "No."

"No?" Tara's voice was an incredulous echo, one that was bound to have an argument behind it. "I don't think you get it Pam. Two years ago you threatened to release me because I didn't agree with you. You didn't give a shit how I felt, and you were willing to throw me away after we endured hell together. Everything we went through from usurping the Authority, to winning this fucking war...you stomped on. Why? Because Eric was more important to you." Tara made a mocking face-her voice dropping to a low venomous note. "It took me two years to realize it, but you didn't listen to me; you didn't want me, because we were never equals. Not like you and Eric were." Tara sighed softly, running a hand through her soft raven locks. " And now...I don't want you anymore Pam."

It took a herculean amount of effort not to gape at her progeny.

Coming to terms with what Tara was suggesting was putting a visible strain on her.

The ebony skinned woman wasn't the first person to ever cut ties with her.

The esteemed De Beauforts had been all too gleeful to dispose of the black sheep of the family.

However, an abundance of time had cured her of her grief over that debacle.

One hundred years of time.

But karma was a bitch, because here almost a century later, Pam was still getting callously discarded by the people she cared about.

...What was wrong with her?

Shuddering, the older vampire realized that this surreal moment was happening.

Tara was asking for something that was a distinct impossibility.

Even knowing that she had no one to blame but herself for her current circumstances, Pam wasn't satisfied. Tara was hers. Her progeny. Her family. Her fangs protracted with a slight click, her unreserved anger summoning the more bestial side of her to the surface. "Don't lie to me." Pam's penetrating gaze fixed on her progeny, and the ebony skinned woman shifted warily from foot to foot under the weight of her stare. "You can't tell me you're done...When the bond we share tells me otherwise. I may have a self indulgent complex where I think the world revolves around me, but that doesn't mean I'm completely oblivious to what's going on with you. You're not "done" with me as you so quaintly put it." Pam made a disdainful noise in the back of her throat, offended by the mere notion that Tara could disregard her so easily, she was no longer suffocating under the relentless surge of self deprecating emotions. She could see past Tara's facade again, and was dissecting her piece by piece. "You're scared of me. Of what I have to say. Of taking what I have to offer you." The older vampire drawled, her azure gaze softening minutely as she gazed her progeny. "Because you're scared it's only temporary, and the moment you let your guard down, I'll take everything away from you." She reasoned, finally deciphering through the intriguing tempest of emotions surging through their bond.

Tara's lips pursed into a thin unhappy line. "You make it sound like you haven't done it before." The dark skinned woman replied, "Pam I have no idea what you're offering, or what the fuck you want from me." Her progeny shook her head vehemently, "You want to be my friend? My Maker? My lover? What? Give me one good reason why I should be thrilled that you're still here? One good reason why I should be exalted that my Maker came back for me when you abandoned me for two years?"

_Because it hurt to be without you._

_Because I ache for you._

_Because I don't believe in love, _

_But I believe in you..._

Words.

Excruciating, unpronounceable words that were too pitiable to be voiced. Pam for all her bluster, and all of her charming oratory skills, lacked the courage to speak the words hovering on the tip of her tongue. Admitting that she had missed Tara, and then being immediately shot down had drained her of what little determination she had. Leaving Pam speechless, and Tara's invulnerable persona shattered by Pam's silence.

Once again, a chasm was separating them.

Swallowing them whole.

And leaving nothing but resentment, and confusion behind.

"Just...Leave me alone Pam." Tara's words were like a physical blow to the stomach, and Pam blinked at the utter finality of them. Then her progeny for the first time since their unification as Maker and Progeny, closed off her side of the bond. Putting an impregnable wall between Pam and herself. It was an unpleasant thing being intimately connected to another living entity only to have that bond severed without your consent. There was a sudden coldness invading the space Tara used to occupy, and Pam inhaled sharply as she watched her progeny walk away. The visual of Tara's retreating back making her that much more aware of how alone she was.

And how empty a singular existence was.

It was a miserable, and wretched experience having only herself as company.

Pam detested most vampires, most humans, and all fairies, but that didn't mean she could glean any sort of happiness from living out every day of her eternity alone.

Forever was a long time...

She doubted Tara knew what it meant to shun someone for that long.

She doubted the pain of being ostracized from those she cared about would last that long.

No emotion ever lasted that long.

Unless someone was constantly breathing life into it.

So the future didn't scare her.

But the present, the present was something to be reckoned with.

The only thing that soothed her right now was a curious numbness coursing through her body.

Poisoning her, and enriching her, even as Tara moved beyond her line of sight.

Left alone, Her words to the therapist she had gorged herself on what felt like a century ago surfaced in her thoughts with piercing clarity. _You humans love your pain don't ya? You just love being in it. You even consider it a virtue. Cry the most at a funeral - you must be the best person. You promise to never forget each other, you promise to feel the sting of loss forever. Because for y'all, forever is just the blink of an eye. Your lives are pathetically brief. When we say forever, we have to mean it. So we move past our pain, we heal, we move on, because pain is a worthless emotion._

She'd said those words in spite.

Harnessing her anger to diminish the bond she had with Eric.

Back then.

She didn't want him to be used against her.

But there was a grain of truth in her words.

This overwhelming tide of emotion.

Was painful.

And in the grand scheme of things, pain was a worthless emotion.

She didn't know if she was ready to surge past it though.

So she buried it.

Foolishly.

Effortlessly.

A century of hiding her feelings behind cruel words, and inexhaustible sarcasm had made her rather good at not dealing with the problems worming into her life. Her gaze sidled over to the treeline where Tara had disappeared, and she slowly began walking in that direction. Relying on her senses instead of the bond connecting them. Traces of feeling trickled from Tara: Mostly anger, but it was hard to discern anything from her progeny because Tara completely cut herself off from Pam: Muting her. Muffling the "noise" from her side so Pam wouldn't know what she was feeling.

The silence in her mind was deafening.

The familiar warmth of Eric had been gone for a long time...

Having the cold invade her thoughts from Tara's end was infinitely worse.

Because it was recent.

It was raw.

And it was a constant reminder of her inadequacy.

As a Maker.

And as a person.

Shuffling quietly through the woods, she ducked under a low hanging branch, her steps slow and deliberate as she doggedly pursued Tara's scent. It didn't lead back to the Thornton residence, instead it veered off even deeper into the woods, circling over to the Compton estate where Tara had undoubtedly met up with Jessica and Willa. Her peers. And friends of choice. Because the people that used to matter had proven to be utterly worthless. Even the Stackhouses were nowhere to be found in this new malignant world, which was strange because usually when the supernatural community was turning on it's head Sookie Stackhouse could be found right in the middle of the upcoming apocalypse-as annoying and as empty headed as ever.

Lengthening her stride so she was running at a vampire speed, Pam tore through the woods her heightened senses picking up distant gunshots the closer she got to the Compton residence.

When Willa said starved vampires attacked them three or four times a week...

She clearly wasn't exaggerating.

With every progressive step, she began to see evidence of not one but several vampires who had recently traversed through these woods: Trees stripped down to just their trunks, like someone had purposefully reduced them to pathetic saplings on a whim. Jagged lines were carved into the soil, Marking the heavy footsteps of vampires who had worn a path into the earth by running at vampire speed through these woods. And of course the acrid scent of tainted blood as she drew closer to the Compton estate, meaning that several of the starved vampires had already met an unfortunate demise courtesy of the baby vamps that were just now entering her field of vision.

Slowing down to a stop so she was hidden in the shadows of the treeline, Pam peered across the sprawling lawn in front of her, noting the decapitated bodies of dead vampires that were slowly converging into puddles of blood; leaving nothing but a river of red and a UV bullet behind. Among the fallen were four figures that still stood defiantly against the darkness. Four Vampires. Three of which had lived with her at one point, and one whose identity was a mystery to her because all she could see was his back. And the throbbing veins in his forehead.

From her position, Pam was able to separate Tara's outline from the rest, and slowly her gaze trailed over her blood soaked progeny before sliding over to the other two baby vampires. Next to Tara, Willa looked like a bedraggled teenager that was barely on the cusp of adulthood. Eric's second progeny had her gun pointed at the ground, a dark scowl on her lips, and long wisps of brown hair clinging to her face as she glared at the gentlemen whose presence was still a mystery to Pam. Blinking in confusion, her gaze fell to Jessica last, noting how two years seemed to have made her more world weary. Jessica's pale face was marred by a deep frown, and like Willa her gun was also pointed towards the ground.

Then for the first time since she arrived someone spoke.

"You younger vampires are so funny...Those bullets don't mean shit if you can't hit me." The grotesque man drawled, a hint of laughter in his voice. "I bet none of you are even in your fiftieth year. Young uppity bitches..You can't touch me. I'm over a hundred years old." One slender eyebrow rose when she saw the older vampire cradle someone to his lips running his fangs across tan succulent skin, then a tantalizing scent drifted to her from her position in the shadows. Revealing to her why her baby vampires all looked pissed. And why all of them were deathly still.

This arrogant bastard was feasting on a fairy.

Which was why no one was shooting him.

Which was why Tara, Jessica, and Willa all appeared frozen.

There was a tangible fear in the air.

One that was purely derivative of losing Adeline.

And he was reveling in that fear because as long as he held Adeline close to him, as long as he had superior strength and speed, no one in the clearing could touch him, or deprive him of his meal. And no one could shoot him because he had Adeline as an impregnable shield to protect him. However, Pam wasn't in the clearing. She was in the shadows, and she doubted this man was capable of detecting her with the alluring smell of fairy blood so close to his nostrils. Not to mention, in terms of age, she was clearly older than he was. But the question was not whether she _could_ save this girl from a potentially life threatening situation, it was whether she _should?_ Two years had not changed her opinions of fairies.

She still loathed them all.

Equally.

And without discrimination.

"Listen you stupid fucktwat, We've all killed vampires older than us before, and it's always their arrogance that leads to their undoing. Having her alive is the only thing that is protecting you right now, but If Adeline dies, I swear to god I will kill you in the most painful fucking way I can think of." Tara promised, the bluff leaving her lips smoothly. Pam was almost impressed but even she could hear the exaggerated bravado in her progeny's words. If Tara was capable of killing this man in order to liberate Adeline she would have done so already. And he knew that too.

Pam sighed softly, shifting in the shadows.

Standing idly by was no longer an option.

Clearly Adeline was important to her progeny, which in turn made her life a matter of some import to Pam.

The man threw his head back in laughter, his adam's apple bobbing as he boisterously voiced his amusement, "Don't make me laugh, I can do whatever the hell I want with this girl," He emphasized his words by digging his fingers into Adeline's thigh, and making the fairy cry out in pain, a slight whimper leaving her. "And there's not a damn thing you can do abou-" His verbose claim died on his lips because in the time it took him to boast about his superiority, Pam had left the safety of the shadows and silently plunged her fingers through the back of his throat, ripping out his jugular through the back of his neck with one hand, and with the other hand she wrenched him back so he was forced to stare up at her.

"You are a very tedious little man." She murmured as blood trickled from his lips. It would take several minutes for his skin to re-knit itself back together, and even longer for the veins in his jugular to reform themselves since she had ripped them from his throat, and unceremoniously dropped them on the ground. "I'm always amazed when anyone unlucky enough to have a y chromosome is _**this **_stupid." Pam snorted derisively before callously throwing him to the ground, one hand shooting up to catch Adeline before she slammed into the dirt with him. This had all happened in the span of a few seconds so as soon as Pam caught Adeline, she was immediately converged upon by two concerned baby vampires.

"Pam, that was bad ass!...Extreme, And...ew." Willa rambled as she glanced down at the veins coiled on the ground by Pam's feet, before glancing up at Tara's Maker. "But holy hell, I thought we were in deep shit for a second there." Willa said, kneeling down next to Pam to check on the fairy who was trembling violently in the older vampire's grasp.

Jessica crouched down next to her, gesturing for Pam to hand over Adeline. Willingly, Pam offered the half fae over to the red head, unable to deal with the prolonged touch. "Take her." She said dismissively, happily giving the role of comforter to someone else. But to everyone's surprise, Adeline, refused to move, burying her face into Pam's shoulder.

"Adeline..." Jessica murmured, her mouth falling open.

Pam peered down at the girl in her arms, who appeared to be in shock.

Fanfuckingtastic.

It was evident that Adeline's interactions with vampires had done more than just traumatize her.

Placing her finger against her lips, Pam lightly broke the skin with her fangs so blood streamed from the cut. Then she traced the edge of Adeline's neck with the crimson liquid, sealing the wound, and furthering the illusion that the fairy was in prime condition, and hadn't just been fed on by some starving uncivilized prick from god knows where. "Pam...what?" Jessica stared at her in shock, stark disbelief creasing her features. "What are you doing here?" The red head asked, trying to understand Pam's sudden appearance with varying degrees of success. Pam's presence and her interaction with Adeline was beyond anyone's comprehension.

Even her own.

The older vampire sighed sending Willa a withering glare.

"Willa told me to come along and see what you insufferable group of neophytes are up too." Pam drawled unhelpfully, knowing that wasn't the definitive answer the red head wanted.

And Jessica frowned at the vague reply.

Tara's Maker went out of her way to be difficult.

Seriously.

Pam sighed her gaze sliding over the familiar faces, and lingering Tara's who wasn't looking at her, or anyone else for that matter. There was a metal clang as her progeny cocked her gun, brushing past her so she was towering over the man Pam had incapacitated. Without flinching, Tara pressed the trigger, and a deafening shot echoed through the clearing as the arrogant swine was reduced to a puddle of blood, and indecipherable chunks...

"Jesus Christ Tara." Willa hissed, her heightened hearing making the shot sound immeasurably louder.

Pam stiffened as slender fingers dug into her skin and Adeline began cry, her frame riddled by broken sobs. Her instincts demanded she distance herself from this human, but as she felt tears dampening her shirt, she found she couldn't act on her irritation. Despite the obvious disdain she had for emotions, she always seemed to be put in a position where she had to help someone come to terms with theirs. Awkwardly she patted the stripling of a girl, wondering how long she had to endure this uncomfortable position. "Just breathe." She advised the sobbing girl, very cognizant of the two cautious pairs of eyes studying her. Warning her to be very careful with the fairy in her arms.

Jessica's gaze was fixed on Tara, a frown darkening her normally bright features. "I wish we could have done that in the first fucking place." She complained, her voice a low grumble that everyone heard. Shaking her head, the baby vamp turned her attention back to Pam, her lips twitching upwards into a curious half smile."No Pam, what I meant to ask was, when did you get back to Bon Temps and Are you here to stay?" The red head elaborated on her earlier question, bewilderment still apparent on her face as she once again attempted to get some answers.

"_Just...Leave me alone Pam." _

Tara's words echoed in her thoughts.

Making her falter in her movements.

Making her hesitate for a fraction of a second.

Before a defiant chuckle left her lips.

"I got back a few days ago...and yes Jessica, I'm here to stay." Pam said simply, and in that instant she felt a sliver of surprise course through her bond with Tara. Before dark stormy eyes fixed on her. Studying her. Measuring her. Compelling her to articulate herself. To add substance to her words. Tara still didn't believe her.

But eventually she would.

Because Pam wasn't going anywhere.

* * *

**Anddddd we're done here.**

**How do you feel right now? xD Leave your thoughts.**

** I'mma try to get the next update done...faster than this. But College and life are so distracting xD**


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